Past Exhibitions and Displays
Find out more about some of the exhibitions and displays you might have missed at the Museum over the last few years.
Sit Down: Seating for Kids
When is a seat not just for sitting on? When it's for play, for eating, for learning or even for a quick snooze of course!
Wallpaper* Chair Arch
A stunning Marble Floor display, fresh from the John Madejski Garden at the V&A, commissioned by Wallpaper* for the annual London Design Festival in 2009.
How are seats designed?
Designing a child's seat is a complex process. The brief will invariably raise important questions, such as 'Is it multi-functional?', 'Is it economical?' and 'Will it appeal to parents and school decision-makers as well as to children?'.
A Child from Everywhere
Photographer Caroline Irby spent one year tracking down a child born in every country in the world (now living in the UK), then photographed and interviewed each one.
Use Your Imagination
An exhibition of toys designed and made by BA (Honours) Applied Arts students at Middlesex University, drawing on the Museum's archive of toy manufacturer Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Ltd.
Wendy's World
When it comes to creative play there are two types of children. Those who build structures (be they complex towers in their minds or structures with Meccano) and those who build stories. Etienne Clément's intensely alluring yet deviously complex photographic works ingeniously weave these two types together.
Welcome to Our World... Lives for Sale
Lives for Sale, the first in a new series of changing displays, looks at the contemporary trade in child labour and asks - What can we do to help end human trafficking?
Kingsmead Eyes
Kingsmead Eyes: The result of a unique collaboration between photographer Gideon Mendel and 28 pupils from Kingsmead School in Hackney.
Bethnal Green at Christmas
A selection of Rohan Silva’s photographs documenting the multicultural tableau of the local community during the festive season.
Childhood: From Paul Trevor's Eastender Archive
A selection of 20 photographs drawn from Paul Trevor’s Eastender Archive documenting life in the East End during the 1970s, 80s and into the 90s.
Read more about Childhood: From Paul Trevor's Eastender Archive
Sindy in the Sixties
A temporary display in celebration of British fashion doll Sindy during the Swinging Sixties, exploring how the launch of Pedigree's "doll you love to dress" in 1963 coincided with the explosion of youth culture in 60s society.
Wonderland
Enter the dark and magical world of Wonderland by East London Printmakers an exhibition exploring fairy tales, myths and folk tales from around the world.
Bettina von Zwehl: Profiles III
In Bettina von Zwehl's photographs, one year-old babies are captured in an instant of alertness and total concentration. Depicted in profile and three times larger than life size, they appear almost monumental...
Playing with Puppets
An interactive display featuring puppets from the Little Angel Theatre's production of The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me...
Make Do and Mend
Make Do and Mend combines the work of contemporary designers and local schoolchildren. Jon Male, Lou Rota and Max McMurdo rework salvaged domestic and industrial waste to create stylish, quirky new products...
Snozzcumbers and Frobscottle!
Step into the quirky and humorous world of Quentin Blake and Roald Dahl with Snozzcumbers and Frobscottle, a celebration of the coming together of two amazing creative forces...
Victorians at the Seaside: Photographs by Paul Martin
In 1892, the photographer Paul Martin made a trip to Yarmouth, the popular seaside resort in Norfolk. Disguising his camera as a leather box, he was able to record his fellow holidaymakers unnoticed...
Read more about Victorians at the Seaside: Photographs by Paul Martin
Top to Toe: Contemporary
A display featuring contemporary clothing produced by childrenswear designers based in London's East End...
Home and Away
What makes a place into a home? Why do we think of other places as 'away'? Home and Away looks at how children from South Asian communities in East London think about the different places they encounter in their everyday lives...
Past Temporary Exhibitions and Displays 2008
Past Temporary Exhibitions and Displays 2007
Must-have Toys
An exhibition for all generations - everyone remembers their must-have toy. Favourite toys from the last 100 years brought together for the first time in the most comprehensive collection of desirable toys ever seen in Britain.
